NifMerge face doesn't match eye color/eyebrows

[ThrillaWhale]

Hey guys, I have an issue I need help with. I used NifMerge to merge an exported RaceMenu face onto a vanilla CK npc face, as per the TesNexus tutorial (http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Using_a_face_made_with_Chargen_Extension_on_an_NPC_for_Skyrim). But for some reason, the final eye color and eyebrow shape never match the source face.

I've tried it with two separate save game faces and got the same results:

 

Eyes were ice blue, turned brown. Eyebrows changed slope.

 

 

Eyes were hazel, turned brown. Eyebrows changed slope.

 

 

I'm also beginning to suspect that the eye shape itself isn't exactly the same as the original face. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? Is there something I'm doing wrong?

 

 

Some notes that might be pertinent:

 

- I am using the most recent nifmerge

- faces are made and exported only from latest RaceMenu, no other face-related mods installed

- head parts that I merge: Head, Eyes, Eyebrows, Mouth (the hairs were not nifmerged, I put them in standalone CK headparts)

- merged eye color is always brown, even if both the target face and the source face both use the same non-brown color

- I feel like the final merged eyebrows in both cases look as they would without the edits made in RaceMenu (no increased arch, changed slope, etc)

- Second character ended up with face/body texture mismatch, but I'm pretty sure that's an unrelated issue

 

Any input would be really appreciated!! I've wanted to go into modding for a long time now, but I was always discouraged by the glitched results of NifMerge whenever I've tried to make custom faces.

Edited January 23, 2015 by ThrillaWhale

[ThrillaWhale]

After some tinkering, I got the merged eye shape to be identical to the source by setting the target face in the CK to have the same base eye morph as the RaceMenbu source face. But the eye color and eyebrows are still off.

[ThrillaWhale]

Alright, so...I actually solved the problem in my own way. I figure I'll write it here in case anyone in the future runs into the same problems as me. For some reason, any head merged with Nif Merge came out using the vanilla brown eyes and human eyebrows 01. To fix this, I opened the merged head file in Nifskope and changed the eye and eyebrow textures:

 

1. Open merged head in Nifskope

2. Expand the NiNode branch for the face

3. Expand the NiTriShape branch for the Eyes/Eyebrows

4. Expand BSLightingShaderProperty

5. Click on BSShaderTextureSet

6. In the Block Details window, expand Textures

7. Here, you can see a list of texture paths the file is using to locate its eye color or eyebrow shape. Click on these and edit them to follow the correct path leading to the desired textures, vanilla or otherwise.

 

And a happy ending for all.

[jackofblades2010]

Thank you!